Yankee Brew News Archive

Vermont's Smallest Micro, Jigger Hill Offers Line of Tunbridge Ales

Originally Published: 08/96

By: Tom Ayres

Located on a dirt road two miles off Route 110 in Tunbridge and housed in a cozy, board-and-batten barn, Jigger Hill Brewery is quintessentially Vermont.

The smallest microbrewery in a state renowned for its bootstrap cottage industries, Jigger Hill produces the five brews in its "Tunbridge Ales" line using a four-barrel brewing system built by Montrealer Pierre Rajotte. Home is a diminuitive, 700-square-foot space that formerly housed a welding shop.

For one-time homebrewer Liz Trott and her Jigger Hill founding partner, Janice Moran, running the new "mini-micro" is a labor of considerable devotion. "I went from extracts to all-grain brewing," Liz says of the familiar transition from hobbyist to commercial brewer. "At some point, I realized that someone was going to start a brewery in this area and I decided, 'Why not me?' Homebrewing simply involved too much effort for too little results. My friends really started enjoying my beers and there simply weren't enough of them," she adds with an infectious laugh.

Liz and Janice have kept their "day jobs" while bringing Jigger Hill "up to full tilt." Liz is an elder advocate with the Central Vermont Council on Aging, while Janice is a computer software writer and programmer. Assistant Brewer Jim Fullington rounds out the Jigger Hill crew. The brewery shipped its first product on April 15, just eleven months after incorporating.

The relatively swift beginning pleased Liz and Janice, given the fits and starts that characterize many a microbrewery startup. Jigger Hill has started modestly--it has yet to reach its current capacity of 40 barrels per month. Nonetheless, the range of beers the small brewery offers speaks to Liz's adventurous spirit. "So far, we've broken all the cardinal rules," she offers. "Our beers are unfiltered, the brewery is in a remote location, we're not producing enough beer to meet demand--and we've got an 'odd' beer, too!"

The "odd" beer--Jigger Hill's first seasonal product, Vermont Sap Brew--was a moderately hopped amber ale, crafted with maple sap, offered through retail and draught accounts in the late spring and early summer. The initial commercial response was dedidedly favorable. "I wish we could offer it all year long, but the sugar maples won't cooperate," Liz jokes.

Other beers in Jigger Hill's Tunbridge stable include Telemark Mild, a sweetish, lightly hopped brown ale ("Miller Lite drinkers really like it," says Liz); the assertively hoppy Covered Bridge IPA ("Miller Lite drinkers don't like that!"); the dryish Ox Pull Stout; and World's Fair Special, a "Belgian-style light ale," due in late August, just in time to mark Tunbridge's infamous World's Fair, a regionally renowned cultural mecca.

Baker Distributing of Colchester is handling wholesale distribution of the Jigger Hill beers, while Liz pulls yeoman's duty as the primary marketing domo. The beers are bottled in 22-ounce containers using a six-spout gravity filler from Crivelleur of Ontario. The brewery's draught beers are also available in selected regional accounts.

Late summer and autumn visitors to Vermont can look for Tunbridge Ales on tap in such diverse establishments as Dewey's in South Royalton, the Moon River Tavern in Stockbridge, and The Three Needs in Burlington. There is also fairly wide distribution of the bottled ales, while supplies last.

"Good beer is worth waiting for," Liz points out. "Ben and Jerry's started out in a gas station and we're starting out in a barn. We know we can't stay here forever, but we'll keep trying to meet demand and expand as we need to. The way things are going, it looks like expansion will take place sooner than we expected."